In March 1956, Premier Zhou met with a special British guest in Beijing. This Jew, whose Chinese name was "Ma Kun", was once Sun Yat-sen's bodyguard and was nicknamed Ma Kun with a double gun. Invited to return to China this time, Premier Zhou was very courteous to him and personally toasted him with Moutai wine at the banquet. During the banquet, Premier Zhou also asked Ma Kun to ask him to pay tribute to Sun Yat-sen's only son, Zi Ke, on his behalf. And said:
We cannot allow Dr. Sun Yat-sen's son to go into exile for a long time, and the Chinese government still welcomes Mr. Sun Ke back to China.
Ma Kun
During the Nationalist government, there was a popular saying in the official arena in Nanjing: "Whoever calls you don't have a good father?" People who know the essence of this sentence know it well. This refers to Sun Yat-sen's only descendant. At the same time, Sun Ke also had a very indecent nickname in the official field, called "the prince who likes to be an official".
In fact, Sun Ke studied hard in his early years, was sincere and studious, and was ready to study agriculture after graduating from middle school, and Sun Yat-sen greatly appreciated his son's choice and personally chose a school for him. Graduated from Honolulu High School, bachelor of arts from the University of California, Berkeley, master's degree from Columbia University, and honorary doctor of laws from Columbia University. After returning to China, he also wrote academic monographs such as "Urban Planning Theory" and "Introduction to Advertising Psychology", and actively engaged in translation work, which can also be regarded as a scholar.
Sun Ke eventually chose to enter politics and became the first mayor of Guangzhou after Sun Yat-sen unified Guangdong. However, as a doctor in the United States, Sun Ke was obviously not so suitable for being an official, and his reputation in the official arena was very bad, and he even became a political decoration of Chiang Kai-shek for a time.
From the perspective of Sun Ke's disposition, he was a scholar and did not experience much practical political experience, and his political career was really not his strength, but because he was the only male heir of Sun Yat-sen, for the Kuomintang factions, it was conducive to bringing him out as a signboard, which was conducive to finding the legitimacy of his power. Therefore, it is necessary to find a position that is more suitable for his disposition, high reputation, but does not have much real power.
In 1931, Hu Hanmin, once regarded as Sun Yat-sen's successor, became increasingly powerful, gradually threatening Chiang Kai-shek's position. Therefore, the old Jiang found an excuse to put Hu Hanmin under house arrest, which in turn caused a wide range of anti-Jiang, and had no choice but to release Hu Hanmin. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek invited Sun Ke to succeed Hu Hanmin as the chief of the legislative council, which was 16 years.
In 1948, the Kuomintang held the first National Assembly in Nanjing, and the election of president and vice president was initiated. Chiang Kai-shek both saw the presidency as a bargain and wanted to control the outcome of the vice president's election. For Old Jiang, the most intolerable thing is, of course, the election of Li Zongren of the Gui clan, who has never dealt with him. But Li Zongren is unusually positive, and the momentum is very strong. Therefore, Chiang Kai-shek thought of Sun Ke again.
Chiang Kai-shek chose Sun Ke for three reasons: First, Sun Ke's potential influence in the party and overseas is extremely large, and at the same time he has the support of Cantonese people; Second, the Guangdong clan to which Sun Ke belonged was originally united with the Gui clan in the process of resisting Chiang Kai-shek, so that the promotion of Sun Ke could not only disperse Li Zongren's vote source in the southwest, but also cause two injuries and reap the benefits; Third, Cheng Qian, who was quite powerful in the campaign, was previously a loyal pro-Sunist faction, and sun Ke could get Cheng's support vote when Cheng Qian abandoned the election. Of course, the most important thing is that Sun Ke is a scholar, who has little ambition and a weak personality, and will not become Chiang's political enemy.
Sun Ke originally did not have this plan, the vice president is just a vacant position, and has no real power, and it is really not worth the loss to give up the president of the Legislative Yuan for the sake of the vacant position. Chiang Kai-shek sent Soong Mei-ling to the door to persuade him, and Sun Ke said very directly that he would rather be the legislative president with real power than a short vice president, and at the same time he refused on the pretext of being unable to raise campaign funds. Soon, however, Soong Mei-ling came to the door again, saying that after Chiang Kai-shek allowed Sun Ke to be elected vice president, he could still concurrently serve as president of the Legislative Yuan, and the funds for running for election could be borne by Chiang Kai-shek. In this way, Sun Ke had no excuse, and although he was still a little hesitant, he could no longer refuse after Chiang Kai-shek personally came to the door to persuade him.
Although Chiang Kai-shek mobilized the CC Department, the Huangpu Department, the Political Science Department, and even the Central Unified Army, Sun Ke, who was in a hurry, was still unable to defeat Li Zongren, who was fully prepared and bound to win. After Chiang Kai-shek heard the news from the radio, he flew up and kicked the radio out of the way.
From October to January 1948, with chiang kai-shek's economic collapse of gold coupons and his military defeat in the Liaoshen decisive battle, Sun Ke decided to try peace talks to save the Kuomintang's rule. In the Legislative Yuan, where Sun Ke was president, someone suggested that Chiang Kai-shek should "rest." Although Sun Ke did not explicitly propose that Jiang must go to the wilderness, he also frequently "exchanged views" with The Lord and Yu Youren, Shao Lizi, Zhang Qun, Zhang Zhizhong, Zhang Boling, and others.
At one point, Chiang Kai-shek flatly refused this and severely accused the lord and the peacemaker of "losing the national spirit and being a complete capitulationist." However, the first phase of the Battle of Huaihai ended on November 22. Jiang was defeated by the loss of 18 integrated divisions and had to agree to Sun Ke's appointment as chief executive to preside over the peace talks.
However, at the critical moment when China's fate was decided, Sun Ke failed to respond to the situation, accepted the eight conditions of the CCP's peace talks, and resigned in the face of opposition less than three months after taking office.
After stepping down, sun ke was faced with whether to continue to be in the company of Chiang Kai-shek or to find another way, and in the end, he chose to go. After resigning as president of the Executive Yuan, he went to Fenghua on March 16, 1949 to meet Chiang Kai-shek, and then went to Guangzhou, where he lived in Hong Kong in May.
After decades of eunuch career, Sun Ke first tasted the taste of "no official and one light body", and he wanted to sit in the book city and taoguang and cultivate obscurity. But for various reasons, he did not have an easy time in Hong Kong, after all, the tree is a big move, this is not a place to stay for a long time, the world is big, what is the foothold, Taiwan or overseas? At that time, Sun Ke was still waiting and watching, and he had not yet made up his mind.
It is said that when Sun Ke was in Hong Kong, the Communist Party contacted him through familiarity, hoping that he would stay and not go to Taiwan. For various reasons, Sun Ke did not choose to do that. The Communist Party expressed its understanding of this, after all, he had served the Kuomintang for many years and had no such ideological preparation for a while. Although he did not return to the mainland to work with his former opponents, he did not go to Taiwan to continue to be an enemy of the Communist Party, and it would be good to do so.
Of course, going to Taiwan has its advantages, he is the revered and admired Sun Yat-sen Zhe heir, based on this alone, the Chinese people, based on the psychology of loving The House and Wu, will naturally take proper care of the widow of the Founding Father, even if he has a festival with Chiang Kai-shek, Chiang Kai-shek will not fail to give him a place to live. Choosing Taiwan instead of living overseas to be a "refugee" is an ideal way to survive. However, he thinks so, but the Taiwan side may not do so. Chiang Kai-shek's reinstatement is inevitable, and there is no shortage of people who intend to become vice president, and if Sun Ke really wants to come to Taiwan, he will inevitably pose a threat.
In "Ma Chaojun's Memoirs", it is mentioned that in December 1949, Chiang Kai-shek flew from Chengdu to Taipei and did not invite Sun Ke to Taiwan by telegram. The following year, Chiang Kai-shek launched the "Kuomintang Reform" campaign, and did not formally invite Sun Ke, but only informed Sun Ke through Secretary General Hong Lanyou -- this is enough to show that Chiang Kai-shek's attitude is that he and Sun Ke are of the same mind and disagree.
In addition, Sun Ke had already seen through Chiang Kai-shek's personality, and he really did not want to fight for him anymore. He really wanted to be able to live a little freer in the second half of his life, think about it, and finally make a decision, instead of going to Taiwan to see the old Jiang's face and acting, it would be better to cut off with him and go away.
Sun Ke will soon see from the prominent Kuomintang members who went to Taiwan how correct his decision is. Those who followed Chiang Kai-shek to Taiwan are even the best ending when they are idle, and looking at Bai Chongxi, Xue Yue, and even Chen Lifu, Hu Zongnan, and others who used to be Chiang Kai-shek's concubines, most of them are uncomfortable in their later years. However, Sun Ke, who lives overseas, does not seem to have a good life.
At that time, Fu Bingchang, an old subordinate of Sun Ke, bought a villa on the outskirts of Paris, France, with an extra three or four rooms for Sun Ke and his wife to temporarily shelter. Earlier, Sun Ke had asked the Kuomintang government to issue passports to the United States to support his children, but somehow to no avail. In desperation, he had to live in France first, and after two years of living, he applied for a passport to the United States.
Sun Ke and his wife first arrived in the United States and lived in the homes of their two daughters. In the summer of 1954, Mr. and Mrs. Sun moved to California to live in the apartment rented by their second son, Sun Zhiqiang, in the suburbs of Los Angeles. It was an old mud bungalow on a hill about a hundred meters high on the outskirts of Los Angeles.
Sun Ke has been in a high position for a long time, but like his father, he "does not store private wealth", and his entanglement with his wife to go abroad was achieved by selling the house in Shanghai (about 130,000 US dollars). Mr. and Mrs. Sun Ke lived idly in the United States, without any fixed income, all relying on their children to help, and spent more than ten years of hardship.
At that time, like Sun Ke in the United States, there were many former Kuomintang officials, like the People of the Kong Song Family, most of whom were full of money, but Sun Ke was like a fugitive. Sometimes, in order to save money, he grows his own vegetables and cooks. When he first arrived in the United States, Sun Ke's insomnia and high blood pressure recurred, and duodenal ulcers became more and more serious, and he could not eat bread, rice, and fruits, and only drank a little skim milk.
During his exile in the United States, the Taiwan side paid little attention to Sun Ke, and occasionally only visited the old people of the mainland period. When Chen Cheng visited the United States in 1961, he only called Sun Ke to greet him, and the Kuomintang office in the United States had no contact with Sun Ke.
In the United States for more than 10 years, Sun Ke basically never asked about politics, he was far away from the city, reclusive, and had almost no contact with the outside world. Although the life is poor, but with children and grandchildren to take care of, read books every day, read newspapers, go to the town to hang out, but also quite comfortable. No one expected that Sun Ke would not be lonely after all, and could not bear the gap from a "high-ranking party-state official" to a foreign civilian; after more than 10 years of going to the United States, he returned to Taiwan at a rare age and once again became a "high-ranking official" of Chiang Kai-shek's government. This decision is truly bizarre.
On September 20, 1961, Sun Ke's seventieth birthday, americans in the United States held a grand birthday celebration for Sun Ke in the town of Bak. Out of reverence for Dr. Sun Yat-sen and his old friendship with Sun Ke and Chen Shuying, Zhang Xueliang's original wife Yu Fengzhi, who had always lived in simplicity, also drove from the duoshu city near San Francisco to celebrate the birthday.
However, Yu Fengzhi did not know at that time, and just as Sun Ke was celebrating his birthday, the Taiwan side sent lobbyists to the United States to urge Sun Ke to go to Taiwan. When the Kuomintang was defeated and retreated, Sun Ke did not go directly to Taiwan, and now he is returning to Treasure Island, which is somewhat undignified to him. So he began to contact some influential people to walk with him, both heroic and not to give people a sense of loneliness.
During the birthday celebration, Sun Ke had a sincere conversation with Yu Fengzhi, hoping that she would also return to Taipei to live in a "patriotic" role, and at the same time visit Zhang Xueliang. Surprisingly, when Yu Fengzhi discovered that Sun Ke had the heart to return to Taiwan, he said sternly:
"I can't go back to Taiwan. Even though I live very lonely in the United States. I don't have many relatives and friends, but I would rather be alone here than go back to Taiwan to join in the hustle and bustle of someone, let alone go back to cheer for him at such a time. Because I have a national vendetta against Jiang. The national disaster was lost in his hands in my hometown in northeast China, and the family vendetta was Han Qing (Zhang Xueliangzi Hanqing) who was detained by him for decades. As a leader, he rebelled, so how can I return to Taiwan? Unlike Mr. Sun, if I go back to Taiwan, I will be laughed at. People in the know will say that I have no backbone in Yu Fengzhi! ”
Yu Fengzhi's words left Sun Ke speechless, but his determination to go to Taiwan seemed to have been dropped, and he no longer cared about his face.
In fact, as early as 1953, Chiang Kai-shek held a so-called "National Congress" meeting in Taiwan, and when Sun Ke learned of it, he immediately put down his work and went to Washington, San Francisco, and other places to carry out activities in the US political circles and overseas Chinese, hoping to gain understanding and support. According to Taiwan media, Sun Ke's purpose is to return to Taiwan and strive to become a vice leader, so how can Chiang Kai-shek let him "make trouble"? Since then, Sun Ke has also prepared to go to Taiwan many times, but was blocked by the Chiang Kai-shek authorities.
By the 1960s, Chiang Kai-shek's "counter-offensive" had long been hopeless, and Sun Ke was already dying of old age and could not pose a threat. Under the operation of the Guangdong bureaucrats in the Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek finally relaxed and allowed Sun Ke to go to Taiwan.
On October 29, 1965, Sun Ke and his party boarded a Japanese Airlines plane and landed at Songshan Airport in Taiwan. Looking at the more than a thousand dignitaries and celebrities who came to welcome him, Sun Ke burst into tears. Accompanied by Chiang Ching-kuo, Sun Ke and his party drove to the Yangmingshan First Hotel. After a short break, Mr. and Mrs. Sun Ke and their son Sun Zhiping went to the Heart Circle Hotel in Taipei to attend a banquet hosted by Ma Chaojun, Liang Hancao, Zheng Yancai and others.
As soon as Sun Ke set foot on the island of Taiwan, he made a big fuss in order to meet political needs. In an interview with reporters, he said: "The Three People's Principles are a good political proposition recognized by the world, and in fact all countries in the world are following it, and only the Communist Party of China, which lives on the mainland, has acted perversely and incurred anger and resentment. ”
In the United States, Sun Ke was basically isolated from the world, no longer cared about politics, and did not make any radical remarks on the mainland. But when he arrived in Taiwan, "to what mountain to sing what song", he could no longer remain silent. Only by singing the opposite tone can we blend in and wash away our "disloyalty" to the Kuomintang, so as to show that we and the Kuomintang have always been in solidarity with each other. In the end, Sun Ke still chose to look at Chiang Kai-shek's face and act.
In Taiwan, because of his special status, Sun Ke was invited by various characters to participate in various activities, and the itinerary was fully arranged. And his speeches on various occasions are basically repetitive. Although he kept clamoring for Taiwan and for the Kuomintang. But what we feel in our hearts, although we do not know. But obviously, he is somewhat insincere, and it is a helpless choice to make a scene. The food in the official arena is not delicious. On that occasion, it was inevitable to say something against one's heart and curse people. Thinking about Sun Ke's predicament at that time, it was really difficult to say a word.
Sun Ke's "performance" finally won the favor of Chiang Kai-shek, and as in the past in the mainland, he served as a high-ranking official with high reputation, good treatment, but not much real power in Chiang Kai-shek's government.
In the early morning of August 26, 1973, Sun Ke felt chest pain and difficulty breathing, and was admitted to the hospital that morning, and was diagnosed with acute myocardial infarction complicated by heart failure. After more than 10 years of treatment, it has improved slightly. By the early morning of September 12, Sun Ke's condition suddenly deteriorated, he was unconscious, and after some first aid, his breathing recovered for a while, but his consciousness was still unconscious. Dragged to the afternoon of September 20, finally died of ineffective rescue, at the age of 82.
As a Christian, Sun Ke did things very "traditionally" after his death. His daughter placed a large pearl in his mouth, held white jade in both hands, supposedly with her heart, and in her pockets was a treasure of gold and silver, and also ordered a paper bungalow, a car and a silver box, and burned many tin foils that had been read.
Resources
The Final Outcome of the Forty-Three War Criminals of the Kuomintang, He Ming, Communist Party History Publishing House
"The Final Destination of Sun Ke's Life", Han Wenning, celebrity biography
"Sun Ke' Dispute with Chiang Kai-shek and Li Zongren and the Peace Talks between the Kuomintang and the Republic of China", Zhang Hao, Academic Research
The Last Choice of Sun Ke's Life, Han Wenning, Century